It's that time of year again. Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the white-knuckle band of hammerheads, 43 Bikes, ascend into Sagada for some sweet single-track partying - Ben, Mike, Randal, and PMTB Dex.

Kiltepan Trails(Oct 27 am) First destination was a ride to Kiltepan's super-fun trails. Yes, the ride was sugar sweet, but they wanted to make it sweeter - by building more jumps, berms and drops! We hung out longer as they hammered down and came back up to hammer down again. Already, plans were set for the trail building.

Marlboro Country(Oct 27 pm) Kiltepan was a fun warm-up. Kicking it a notch in climbing difficulty and breath-taking scenery, next destination was an assault to Marlboro Country. Improvement has been done to the rough road - they've graded it which makes it climb-friendly, but wooden planks were in place for cementing the road...horrors!!!

Banga-an Ridge(Oct 28 am) Being acclimatized to the technical nature of the trails, next assault was to Banga-an Ridge. I wouldn't personally recomment this trail to a newbie - the climb up is brutal, more than the usual amount of carrying the bike including the steep cliff-like descent from the ridge's summit, and the hairy ride down the ridge into Deadman's Plunge where the bottom lid falls off. But to the intrepid riders, it's a just another fun ride with an added edge.

Mt. Ampacao Saddle(Oct 31 am) The trip would not have been complete without a ride to Mt. Ampacao's saddle (it's not rideable to the summit where the cell site is) for big-air and hell-raising downhilling. Yeah, they squeezed the saddle for all it can offer...a fitting last hurrah.

Ending Thoughts43 Bikes ride where angels fear to thread (where I also fear to thread!). They got heart, they got technique, and they got the bike (some, hardtails with well appointed bling-blings!). I'd like to think they've returned to their default world having a taste of paradise in Sagada's fabled single-tracks. Until the next year again.